File this under The Least Surprising News Of The Day: Coloradans who work in restaurants and hotels consume the most marijuana. This not-so-shocking revelation comes from a new report from Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment.
The report, published April 13 in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, reveals that nearly a third (32.2 percent) of food service employees report using marijuana in the past 30 days.
According to the study —which surveyed more than 10,100 people on cannabis use, with the results broken out by age, sex, race and occupation — 28.3 percent of artists and those working in the entertainment and recreation industries consumed cannabis in the last month.
Colorado residents employed in education, public administration, utilities and mining, oil and gas are the least likely to use marijuana. In all those industries, fewer than 6 percent of workers use the herb. In Colorado, employees working in mining and utility industries must take mandatory drug tests. Failing the test results in termination.
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But drug testing is not a foolproof deterrent. As Live Science points out:
Workers in construction; manufacturing; and the agriculture, forestry and fishing/hunting industries use weed at rates of 19.7 percent, 16.3 percent and 14.4 percent, respectively, the researchers noted. That puts those workers all close to or above median consumption rates by industry, even though all three of those industries tend to routinely drug-test employees, according to the researchers.
“Employers and safety professionals in states where marijuana use is legal have expressed concerns about potential increases in occupational injuries, such as on-the-job motor vehicle crashes, related to employee impairment,” the report states.
Overall, the survey found that 14.6 percent of all employed Coloradans currently are cannabis consumers.
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Aside from occupation, the survey also examined use by other demographic categories. Marijuana use was higher among ages 18–25 (29.6 percent) than among those aged 26–34 years (18.6 percent) and 35-older (11.0 percent).
Men (17.2 percent) are more likely than women (11.3 percent) to be consumers. By race/ethnicity, marijuana use was highest among non-Hispanic whites (15.3 percent), followed by Hispanics (15.1 percent) and non-Hispanic blacks (14.5 percent)
